Aug 17 (Reuters) - Australian shares are expected to open slightly up on Thursday, mirroring Wall Street which ended marginally up, and also seen to be buoyed by the gains from higher base metal prices.
Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange CMPB3 closed up 5.4 percent, on track for its biggest gain since November and rising above the key technical level of $3,000 for the first time since October 2007. local share price index futures YAPcm1 rose 0.2 percent or 12 points to 5758, a 27.1-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark rose 0.5 percent on Wednesday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell 0.08 percent or 6.42 points to 7846.92 at 2208 GMT.